Race Summary: Mexico GP, 2024
Back To Back Wins for Ferrari As Championship Battle Heats Up
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Sunday 27th October 2024
C. SAINZ JR. #55 (FERRARI) - 1:40:55.800
L. NORRIS #4 (McLAREN) - +4.705s
C. LECLERC #16 (FERRARI) - +34.387s (+FASTEST LAP)
Sunday saw the thrilling conclusion to the second GP in our American triple header, this time in the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico. Having secured a 1-2 finish in Austin and looking increasingly more competitive, Ferrari’s Fred Vasseur made it clear that the priority for the Italian outfit is the Constructors’ Championship. Red Bull started the weekend sat in a precarious 2nd having lost considerable ground over the course of the season as Sergio Perez struggled to match the performances of teammate Max Verstappen. There were some hopes however, for a standout performance in front of his home fans which could do well to help quash the exit rumours for a while longer. McLaren still had a difficult task on their hands with Lando Norris needing to produce consistently high placing finishes to have any hopes of toppling incumbent champion, Verstappen, but could take some solace in being on top of the Constructors’ Standings (at least for now).
Free Practice 1 saw a lot of teams swapping out drivers for rookies, including a return from Ollie Bearman who would on this occasion be driving Charles Leclerc’s car (Ferrari). This stint was rather short lived after the session was red flagged yet again, when Alex Albon (Williams) collided with Bearman and went straight into the barriers. In FP2, Leclerc was back behind the wheel. Despite stating that he felt uncomfortable with the car and the set-up, Leclerc was not far off the pace compared to his Ferrari teammate Sainz Jr., only 0.188 seconds slower when comparing their two fastest laps in that session. Sainz topped the table in this session with Leclerc in 4th. For their final session, both Ferraris ran soft tyres and again, looked rather promising in terms of pace although the gap between the two was slightly more pronounced. Sainz finished in 3rd, making him among the top 3 in all three practice sessions, with a time of 1:16.832. Leclerc ended up in 6th with a time of 1:17.232 and the two McLarens perhaps unsurprisingly finished on top.
Q1, once again not without its drama, saw Oscar Piastri have his lap time deleted for going over track limits. Whilst the time in question that put in him in P14 was not enough regardless as the other drivers improved, he was unable to try again with his tyres too hot for another attempt – and like Lewis Hamilton in Austin the week before, he became the first big Q1 exit. Disappointing for Piastri, but still some cause for optimism – the car had been blisteringly fast, and it was only the year prior at that very same track where his teammate had to fight his way from P19 to P5. A massive blow however for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who failed to do enough to stop him facing another Q1 exit, made worse still by it being in front of his compatriots.
In Q2 Leclerc’s issues continued – his struggle to keep his car within the lines meant that he too fell victim to lap time deletion, however unlike Piastri, was able to advance to the next qualifying session. Q2 came to a dramatic end when the red flags were brought out after VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda hit the barriers, preventing his teammate from being able to make another run to try and break into the top 10.
Moving into Q3, Ferrari were seemingly at an advantage. With Piastri and Perez out, Norris and Verstappen would be going into the race unable to take advantage of any tows from cooperating teammates. Both the Ferrari drivers took advantage of slip streams provided by both the Haas drivers as they began Q3. Whilst Verstappen set an impressive lap time to put him on provisional pole, like Piastri in Q1 and Leclerc in Q2, he too fell afoul of the track limits and had his time deleted. Regardless of this however, Carlos Sainz’s first fastest lap of 1:16:055 would still have unseated Max Verstappen, and certainly his second flying lap which broke into the 1:15s (1:15.946s). Even with another set of new tyres and enough time to go again, Verstappen was unable to best this, settling for 2nd. Norris had been somewhat concerned about having enough time left to make another attempt and whilst he was able to, his efforts weren’t enough for anything more than 3rd. As for the second Ferrari, Leclerc’s struggle with balance ultimately hindered his qualifying with a very noticeable wobble on a turn wasting valuable time and putting him in 4th with a time of 1:16.265.
As the lights went out on race day, Yuki Tsunoda found his luck could only seemingly get worse. Tsunoda tried to pass Alex Albon who found himself sandwiched between Tsunoda’s VCARB and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly. Unable to give the VCARB a wider berth as he made his move, Albon clipped Tsunoda’s rear right wheel causing him to go crashing into the barriers in a dramatic fashion and thus ending the race early for both drivers. It was also a disappointing end for Fernando Alonso who ‘celebrated’ his 400th Grand Prix with an early retirement due to problems with excessively high brake temperatures.
Verstappen led the race for a few laps under the subsequent safety car, his fast reaction and launch getting the best of Sainz who had to be content trailing behind him until the safety car period ended and the Ferrari was able to successfully reclaim P1. Once more, this left the two Championship contenders in another heated battle for position. On Turn 4, despite Verstappen effectively pushing him off the track, Norris came out in front. As they approached Turn 8 however, both drivers ended up off the track, allowing Leclerc to leapfrog them both into P2. This of course, very much caught the eye of the stewards who initially issued a 10 second penalty for the Turn 4 incident before hitting Verstappen with another 10 second penalty, this time for ‘leaving the track and gaining an advantage’ – an astounding 20 seconds to be served during his pitstop. Verstappen wasn’t the only Red Bull to incur a time penalty with Perez awarded one for a false start. Despite being rather adamant that he had a ‘great start’, the stewards did not come to the same conclusion stating that the front tyres were ahead of the grid box and issuing Perez a 5 second time penalty.
Whilst it was a good showing from the Ferrari drivers, they were unable to quite replicate the 1-2 from Austin with Sainz Jr. on the radio a few times expressing concerns about Leclerc. It all came to a head however in Lap 63 when Leclerc lost traction going into a corner, sending him off the track and allowing Norris to go through to P2. Fortuitously, Leclerc was able to regain control and continue his race, but having been demoted a place and some precious points.
For the Spaniard however, a dream ending as his time in Ferrari comes to an end. Recovering nicely after the safety car restart and managing his tyres effectively to pull off a one-stop race – it was a well-deserved win for Carlos Sainz Jr.
Haas drivers Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen had a decent race for both to finish in the points. That can certainly also be said for Piastri who despite struggling with a poor qualifying position and excessive traffic fighting through the midfield, finished in a respectable 8th, having made up 9 places.
It was a rather poor race however, for Perez - a penalty, 3 pit stops and having taken some damage from VCARB’s Liam Lawson, he languished in 17th, dead last considering the 3 drivers who were not classified after their DNFs. Even his attempt at fastest lap to try and prevent Charles Leclerc from snagging an additional point for their Constructors’ Championship bid failed, which undoubtably left a sour taste and gave life to more speculation about Perez’ future with the team. Once more, Perez found himself critically outperformed by his teammate, who even with an additional 15 seconds worth of penalties was able to climb his way up the pack to finish in 6th place.
With Carlos Sainz Jr. finishing in P1, Leclerc in P3 and with the bonus point for fastest lap, Ferrari now sit in 2nd in the Constructors’ Standings going into the final GP of this triple bill – São Paulo.